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Lest we forget

The image above is by my best and oldest friend, illustrator and artist Paul Lachine. Paul’s Remembrance Day art has always struck a powerful chord with me. Some of Paul’s other work can be found here and here.

The poem below is by my friend, journalist and poet Frank Dabbs. I first read Frank’s poem after returning from a trip to Kandahar in 2006. I think it beautifully and poignantly captures both the dignity and the sadness of the experience of many Canadian military families.

It struck me back then, as it has on every occasion I’ve been in the field with Canadian soldiers, how very fortunate we are to have such fine people bearing arms on our behalf. Of course it’s foolish to generalize too much – It sounds like a cliche or a platitude and perhaps it is both.

But it seems to me that whether by virtue of their martial culture or training or circumstance, Canada’s people in uniform display an unusual combination of courage and toughness combined with compassion, and grace under pressure. I think that is something worth celebrating and I wish we did so more often.

On this day I also think of my late grandfather, Paul Den Tandt, who fought for King Leopold of Belgium in the brief war that followed the German invasion May 10, 1940. While on a forced march to a POW camp in Germany Paul escaped into a cornfield and eventually made his way back to his village, Herzele, and his young family. My dad, Andre, was two years old at the time.

As kids my brother and sister and I would often ask Grandpa to tell us stories about the war. He always said “It’s better not to talk about these things.”

I am a national political columnist for Postmedia News. My work appears in the National Post, on Canada.com, the Ottawa Citizen, Montreal Gazette, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, Halifax Chronicle-Herald... read more and Vancouver Sun, among other publications. I write primarily about national politics and policy.View author's profile